Freda Crawford

My wife and I were extremely saddened to hear the news yesterday of the death of Freda Crawford, wife of Pastor Gary Crawford of Westside Baptist Church in Gainesville, Florida. Freda had been battling cancer for 9 years. She and her husband Gary have been serving at Westside Baptist Church for 28 years.

As reported by the Florida Baptist Witness:

"While undergoing a cancer treatment regimen that included two bone marrow transplants and on-going chemotherapy, Crawford continued to teach Sunday School and to sing in the choir, completed a Ph.D. in education at University of Florida, and assisted Gary Crawford in writing and editing a book he dedicated to her: Celebration of Love, Marriage and Sex: A Journey Through Song of Solomon."

How wonderful that Mrs. Crawford was voted "Pastor's Wife of the Year" at the Florida State Baptist Convention annual meeting in Pensacola November 9th just a few days before her death. She was the model pastor's wife, teaching Sunday School, playing the piano, committed to serving people through involvement in world missions, and an inspiration to all of the people at her church and in the state of Florida.

My wife and I have fond memories of Westside Baptist and Gary and Freda - we met at Westside Baptist Church and were active in their excellent college ministry, and were married by Gary back in 1986 and were members there until we moved to Jacksonville in 1988. We still have friends who attend Westside who have always told us what a wonderful example of faith and perseverence Freda has been to them through her long battle with cancer.

Our condolences go out to Gary and his family, and all of the people at Westside Baptist Church in Gainesville.

Congrats to Trey Brunson - Appointed as Florida GCR Task Force Member

Yesterday, Trey Brunson, Director of Special Projects at FBC Jax, was named to the Florida Baptist State Convention "Imagine If Great Commission Task Force", by FBSC president John Cross. Trey is one of 30 people selected from around the state who will study what changes need to be made in this state convention to more effectively reach the people of Florida with the gospel.

I do not mean this post to be disrespectful to Trey in any way. I have never heard a negative comment about Trey, and I'm sure he is a capable, fine young man.

However, his appointment to the Task Force is perhaps an example of why an amendment was put forth to the Florida GCR Task Force motion yesterday requiring the task force members to be selected by committee, not by John Cross, FSBC President, in consultation with John Sullivan FSBC Executive Director. That amendment was soundly defeated, and Cross selected the committee.

Trey has been in Florida for only about 3 1/2 years, serving in a position at FBC Jax as the Special Projects Director, although we can't be positive since he has never been listed on the church website as an official staff member. One might wonder what qualifications he has that would make him a candidate for such an appointment in this state, and if his relationship to his father had anything to do with him getting appointed. No doubt John Cross wants the younger generation of Florida Baptists to be represented on the task force, which Trey most certainly is, but if someone is going to represent the Jacksonville area or even FBC Jax, why not one of the OTHER younger ministers in this area like Dan Elkins, or Chris Eppling, or Marcus Allen, Jr. who have all lived and served and ministered in the state of Florida for a much longer time.

I would provide a hyperlink to Trey's bio, or his email address, or description of his ministry at FBC Jax, but he still is not anywhere listed on the FBC Jax website as a staff member. Maybe with this appointment that will change.

But congrats to Trey for such an important appointment, and we wish him well as he serves on this important committee in our state of Florida.

FBC Jax Academy Headmaster Gone

Apparently Jim Daniels, the FBC Jax Academy headmaster hired last year, is from all appearances no longer employed by the school.

Daniels was hired in 2008 to head up the school that was launched the fall of 2009. According to the academy website, Marlene Anderson is now the school's headmaster and no mention is made of Daniels.

No official word has come from FBC Jax about the change.

The Watchdog wishes Mr. Daniels and his family well, and hopes they are doing fine.

Prediction: Brunson for SBC Prez, 2010

I would like to be the first to go on the record predicting that Mac Brunson will be nominated and elected by a comfortable margin, as president of the Southern Baptist Convention during their annual meeting in Orlando in June 2010.

I base this prediction on the following observations:

- 2010 SBC Keynote Address: Brunson was selected by the 2009 SBC Annual Meeting attendees to deliver the SBC 2010 convention sermon (akin to a "keynote address") in Orlando.

- Friendship with Current Prez Hunt: Perhaps Brunson is the choice of current president Johnny Hunt. After all Hunt is a very outspoken friend and supporter of the Brunson family. In his most recent show of support for his good friend Mac during these troubling times during Brunson's tenure at FBC Jax, Hunt flew in to Jax on Friday 9/25 in a plane flown by one of his church members to speak to the FBC Jax deacons and their wives at their Daytona Beach deacon's retreat. Hunt flew in that night, had a riverfront dinner at the Chart House with the Brunsons, then flew back that night after speaking to the FBC Jax deacons. Johnny Twittered during his trip, declaring his love for Mac and calling him "God's man". Another example of the Hunt-Brunson connection is that Hunt this past year hired Mac's son-in-law who just graduated from SBTS. The Hunt and Brunson friendship is deep, and Mac is very close to Paige Patterson. No doubt Mac would be an excellent choice for the Patterson CR crowd.

- State Convention Speaking Gigs: Brunson recently announced to his church that this year he has never received more invitations to speak to groups, and that is schedule is "scary" busy. He has been invited to speak at several baptist state conventions, including Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana, and Oklahoma. These are great stumping opportunities for Mac to garner support for his presidency. The current controversy at FBC Jax seems to not have waned Brunson's popularity with the SBC faithful, and in fact may have served to give his image a big boost amongst the conservative pastors.

- Local Speaking Slots: I found it interesting that Calvin Carr, pastor of North Central Baptist Church in Gainesville and long-time youth minister at FBC Jax, has invited Brunson to speak at his church for their special "Harvest Banquet" day in November. On his blog, Calving Carr described Brunson: "Dr. Brunson leads a mammoth congregation with the heart of a loving shepherd. I know you will not want to miss this special night." So even Calvin Carr is on board with Mac Brunson, "the loving shepherd". Apparently smaller churches like Calvin's find Brunson an attractive preacher to be brought in to speak to their people.

- Support of FBC Jax Lay, Staff, and Leadership: Reportedly things are going very well at FBC Jax, numbers are up, giving is strong, and the ministry is thriving. Mac apparently has full support of his deacons and trustees, and all is well at FBC Jax. After all, Mac has had huge victories of late: the successful launch of the First Baptist Academy and a satellite church in St. John's County.

Why Brunson's increase in popularity of late on the preaching circuit, as Mac himself admits? I don't know, but perhaps he is viewed as the resilient, martyred, humble pastor, or on the other extreme perhaps some in the CR crowd hail him as the one with the guts to take on recalcitrant, blogging, vocal critics of SBC leadership. Or maybe its the influence of his friend Johnny Hunt.

Some may call this prediction a no-brainer, some may say "no way". But I say it is a long-shot prediction when one considers what Mac told Tim Rogers in an SBC Today interview in February 2008:

"I can tell ya right now, I've about determined I'm not runnin' for anything, I'm not going to take an office of anything, I don't want to. God would have to do something awfully, awfully unusual. I don't think my wife would let me do it, number one. But number two, I just don't want to do it."

This last year, certainly has been "awfully, awfully, unusual"....so maybe he will go for it. Needless to say, in this writer's opinion, there is much about Brunson that should cause SBC lay people concern, and the people of FBC Jax great concern, about Brunson's ascension to the convention presidency, and I'll make a few comments in the coming weeks on this.

I know its early, more than 7 months to the 2010 annual SBC meeting, but I want to be the first, at least that I know of, to predict Brunson's ascension to the SBC presidency next year, and if it comes to pass, I'll say a hearty "Congrats" to Mac Brunson!

We shall see next June in Orlando! See you all there!

Brunson Expresses "Remorse" and "Sorrow" Over His "Stumble" Last April

Finally, a step in the right direction.

As Proverbs 15:1 says: "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."

On November 1, 2009, more than 6 months after stating to a Florida Times Union reporter that I am mentally unstable and a sociopath, Dr. Mac Brunson gave a "gentle answer" to the resulting slander lawsuit filed against he and his church. Dr. Brunson has finally taken a step in the right direction.

In his 11/1/09 sermon entitled "Speech Therapy" from James 3:1-2, Brunson expressed "regret" and that he is "deeply sorrowful" for his comments, because of the "influence and the impact of his words", and admitted he should have demonstrated more "maturity". It was very clear that he was referring to his comments made to Jeff Brumley that were published in the Florida Times Union on April 9th, 2009, as Brunson prefaced his "regret" and "sorrow" remarks in his sermon by referring to his words that were "reported on the front page of the headlines".

Click below and you can hear the 2 minute sermon excerpt. If you want to hear the entire sermon, it is available on his I-tunes podcast here, or at his Inlight Ministries podcast website.

A few comments about Mac's comments:

- I commend Dr. Brunson for admitting that he has regret and sorrow for his deeply offending words. These were long overdue. Perhaps if he had been more proactive in apologizing, the defamation part of the FBC Jax lawsuit would never have materialized. And most encouraging to me is that his remarks are more than anyone else at the church has expressed over their own pastor's words, including A.C. Soud, his trustree president who unfortunately followed Brunson's lead and called me a "coward" to the same reporter a few weeks after Dr. Brunson called me a "sociopath". Maybe now many of those who come onto this blog and others who proclaim "Mac was right about you", will be more Christ-like in what they say and how they say it.

- Of course, I hope that if Dr. Brunson truly is regretful and sorrowful and understands how hurtful his words were, that he will contact the Times Union and issue a retraction or clarification of his remarks in the same medium in which they were reported. Calling me a sociopath and mentally unstable to a Times-Union reporter, which ultimately made front page headlines, can not be "corrected" by a statement in a sermon. The audiences are vastly different.
- Also, if you listen to the sermon excerpt, you'll hear Dr. Brunson refer to his statements as a "stumble", and while he does express regret, he defends his misdeed by saying that "we all do it". I respectfully disagree. You see, Dr. Brunson still does not realize that not everyone in the congregation does what he did. Mac was the ONLY person in the 8000+ people in attendance Sunday who was interviewed by the media about the criminial investigation into this blog site by Brunson's friend and body guard who decided to defend the church's actions by stating without reservation that I was mentally unstable and a sociopath. So Dr. Brunson wasn't the victim of the media as he seems to imply in this sermon and others previously. His statements to Brumley were not a "stumble". He knew what he was saying, why he was saying it, and most importantly, to whom he was saying it.

In other word's, Dr. Brunson's remarks were not off-the-record remarks caught on tape; this was no dirt dug up on him, no embarrassing private conversation was overheard, and it wasn't him speaking off-the-cuff in anger. Those might be "stumbles". In the context of him knowing an embarrassing news story was about to come out, it seems he decided to defend his church's actions by proclaiming the blog author to be a nut case. This was Dr. Mac Brunson, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, in a newspaper media interview, sitting in front of Jeff Brumley, on the record, premeditated, stating a very harmful lie about me. He KNEW his comments would be reported. That is not just a "stumble", that everyone does every now and then.

And to make matters worse, he has let 6 months go by without retracting, clarifying, defending, explaining, or apologizing for his comments. And sorry to say, no one in the church, or even Brunson's pastor peers in the SBC has dared to publicly call for Brunson to explain or clarify his remarks....perhaps making Brunson's remarks in his 11/1 sermon all the more commendable.

But, as I said, this is a step in the right direction, and I applaud Dr. Brunson for making this step. Let's see where this might take us. His sermon also mentioned how one needs to apologize to the person harmed personally. Who knows, a personal apology, and clarification through the same medium that what he said was in fact not true, may make a defamation lawsuit against him unnecessary.

But at least this is a step in the right direction.